and also for the fear, that creeping dread you felt waiting for the terrible approach shot, suicidal net rush and subsequent passing shot you just KNEW was coming..

he used to drive me crazy because his ground game was actually really, really good and he could hang with anyone from the back but he would just have a brain explosion and charge the net for no reason..

which makes it even stranger he never won Wimbledon but won a couple of USOs instead.

Here a young Rafter against Agassi ( 1994 Miami SF ), Agassi won in straights but the match was fun ( Agassi had also defeated both Becker and Edberg in straight sets in previous rounds, Andre used to destroy the best serve and volleyers of the game, having a head-to-head of 6-3 against Edberg, 10-4 against Becker, 10-5 against Rafter, 6-0 against Stich....so Rafter did "quite well" winning 5 times against Andre out of 15 matches).

Agreed. It was either the Cincinnati final against Sampras in '98 or the '98 US Open against Sampras in semis(?). It was a traditional tennis camera view behind Rafter serving in the deuce court and Sampras returning. Rafter barely missed a 1st serve kicker. It hit the court, kicked up and hit the backstop about 10 to 12 ft high. Amazing. People forget how tough Rafter's serve was on HC from '97-'98.

and also for the fear, that creeping dread you felt waiting for the terrible approach shot, suicidal net rush and subsequent passing shot you just KNEW was coming..

he used to drive me crazy because his ground game was actually really, really good and he could hang with anyone from the back but he would just have a brain explosion and charge the net for no reason..

which makes it even stranger he never won Wimbledon but won a couple of USOs instead.

fabulous player, good bloke..

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maybe because of his kicker. HC is usually high bouncing and grass is low bouncing. thus on grass usually a slice is more effective and on high bouncing surfaces like clay or hard a kicker.

the high bounce but still reasonably fast surface might have been ideal for pats kicker and net game (clay and AO high bouncing but too slow).